Improving Employee and Customer Services at a Leading University

At a prestigious Australian university, the Customer Services (CS) team serves as the primary resource for information and access to a wide array of services offered by various departments. The team embarked on a digital transformation journey, aiming to enhance the digital experiences of both staff and students. The core objective of this research was to assess and enhance the experiences of staff and students as they handle student queries through diverse channels and touch points across the university.  The Rapid UX Discovery and Evaluation Method allowed the project team to: - Gain insights into staff workflows and their work environment - Uncover challenges and pain points faced by staff and students - Understand the needs of staff and students - Identify manual workarounds utilised by staff - Identify valuable opportunities for improvement.

I worked closely with the product team and business stakeholders, implementing a human-centred design approach that included: - Discovery and Evaluation Blueprint Workshop - Staff 1:1 contextual interviews   - Staff Journey Mapping  - Eco system Mapping - 1:1 Student Interviews  - Detailed Insights and recommendations documented on the Dovetail Insights repository that informed the transformation project - Survey design

Discovery strategy workshops were conducted to gain a thorough understanding of the business goals and priorities and uncover how the transformation project strategy fits within the broader business strategy. These workshops enabled us to understand the business goals, challenges, priorities and technology considerations for the project.

This study offered the business and project team a profound understanding of the background, context, processes, flows, challenges, and pain points within the Customer Services Enquiries space.  The study identified 18 key opportunity areas, such as search and system performance, each containing multiple issues and opportunities. In total, over 100 opportunities were mapped to user stories in Jira, and the implementation team is actively addressing them. The insights gained from the study helped the team understand what was working well and the challenges staff and students experienced in relation to requesting, managing, and resolving enquiries. Additionally, it provided a clear understanding of the needs of staff and students in relation to the transformation project. The analysis of current workflows and systems uncovered needs, pain points, opportunities, and high-level requirements. The study also revealed the negative impact of these challenges on staff productivity, efficiency, and satisfaction. Manual workarounds employed by staff highlighted the inefficiency of existing processes and systems. All insights and recommendations were documented and shared within the Dovetail Research repository, providing a wealth of issues and opportunities for the product and technical teams to focus on during the implementation and development phases.

User profiles (light personas) were created for the primary users to aid the project team in comprehending the challenges, objectives, and requirements of the people they were creating solutions for. These profiles enabled the team to grasp staff and student experiences, predict their requirements, and provide exceptionally tailored, personalised experiences that enhance satisfaction and loyalty.

1:1 Staff Contextual interviews paired with journey mapping was incredibly useful in understanding the staff experience and uncovering significant pain points. These interviews and the journey mapping workshops were instrumental in providing the client and project team a deep understanding of how staff currently receive, assign and resolve enquiries.